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Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Book Review: Calculated Risk by Zoe M. McCarthy

Believing they're too
opposite to attract, a jilted, vibrant marketing gal and a private
numbers guy spend Thanksgiving with his family. She loves classical
music; he listens to 70s tunes. She drives a red SUV; he owns a beige
sedan. She orders a peppermint shake with extra chocolate bits; he
prefers vanilla. What can change the improbable odds they'll fall in
love?

When I first picked this book up, I had no idea that it was a Christian romance novel. Not that this genre is a bad but I just prefer to not read them. I enjoy a well placed f-word and based on the previous Christian romance books that I've read in the past, they are just very slow paced and everyone is sugary sweet and almost unrealistic.

Unfortunately, that's what I found with this one as well. The characters were ... okay. I didn't find myself drawn to either character because I wasn't interested in them at all. They had these emotions about breakups that should have endeared Cisney and Nick to me but it didn't happen. I think it may have been because the conversations were dull and honestly, the characters were dull as well. I was just plain bored after the first chapter or so.

There were these weird things that would happen ... this thing with the post-its ... Cisney would write basically every thought that she had, on a post-it. Nothing wrong with that and it doesn't seem weird to me ... I do it all the time. But the way this author wrote about her habit, she made it sound like Cisney was hiding dead cats in her bathtub and then reading them a bedtime story at night. McCarthy made Cisney sound like a weirdo for writing on pieces of paper. I totally didn't get that.

I don't want to give anything away but in the beginning, Cisney is talking to someone about this piano and someone refers to the piano as "The Old Girl" and Cisney thinks that it's crass for them to call a piano that name. I guess it's just me but I don't see how calling an inanimate object The Old Girl is being insensitive. OR irreverent. If someone runs into the middle of a church service and starts heckling the pastor, THAT would be irreverent. I mean ... I guess you could say that the nickname is irreverent if you worship the piano or something ... I don't know. It was just weird. I didn't get those two things and that is where I started to pull away from the book.

The rest of the novel was uneventful. The characters within the book are perfect - particularly Nick's family - and it made for a very bland read. Something was just missing and it was a healthy dose of umph. You know, the stuff that makes you think back on a book and be like, "WOW! THAT CHANGED MY LIFE". Unfortunately, this didn't change anything except my views on Christian romance novels ... I'll not be reading another one. Ever. I just need a tad bit more excitement to keep me interested, I guess.